


Black and White

by ThatDayEveryday



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Animated (2007)
Genre: BAMF Cliffjumper, Confused Shockwave, Enemies to Something, Hurt/Comfort, No Smut, Other, going down with it, humor man, its rated T for the sake of Pete, love this ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-04
Updated: 2019-03-03
Packaged: 2019-11-09 01:23:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,798
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17992157
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ThatDayEveryday/pseuds/ThatDayEveryday
Summary: With Highbrow out of the way and Longarm's new promotion as head of Cybertron Intelligence, nothing could stand in the way of the Autobot's destruction.At least that's what he thought.Then he met his secretary.





	Black and White

**Author's Note:**

  * For [PezHead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/PezHead/gifts).



> I love this edgy ship. Enjoy.
> 
> Gonna be updated regularly.
> 
> Roughly beta read. (Thanks beta :3)

"...hck.. nhhker.. hnn.."

"Oh, do you still function?" Shockwave asked lightly, as if he were discussing the weather.

Highbrow groaned, coughing up sticky globs of energon and making a mess of the decepticon's pedes. Honestly, the head of Cybertron Intelligence had experienced better cycles.

"Sir," Shockwave drawled, trying to gain the autobot's attention by grinding the barrel of his blaster directly into the middle of Highbrow's cracked and dented chassis.

This only produced more wet, garbled sounds from the government official, who began to shake with violent tremors.

"Hah.. hnk..."

"Well," Shockwave sighed, "if you have nothing to say then I guess we're done here."

As He turned to leave a twisted and bloody servo gripped Shockwave's pede with surprising strength.

"Hrrk- red.. He.. they'll s-see thro-hnk- you..."

One big red optic stared down at the grayed corpse before him thoughtfully. It had taken no less than seven shots to puncture Highbrow's chest plates, and three more to fatally damage his spark chamber. For the elite bots guarding Highbrow it had only taken two shots each. Truly, Cybertron didn't build them like they used to. 

Or Highbrow was just that formidable an opponent. Either way...

Shockwave was satisfied with his work.

..........

Infiltrating the Autobot infrastructure was almost too easy. It helped that they were a proud bunch that believed the war long over. All he needed was a disguise, a reputable way with words, an impressive skill set, and well.. Longarm adjusted the designation plack on the edge of his fancy new desk.

Everything was going exactly according to plan. 

Oh, it had taken a few decades, with having to deal with the autobot accademy, elite guard, and assassination nonsense and all. Lord Megatron's plot to plant spies amongst the governor's of Cybertron was a game best played long term, and Shockwave had known that going in. At first it was rather difficult to conform to the ridiculous convictions of a society that he detested, but slowly, over time, playing the part of Longarm Prime became what he did best.

Now, with Highbrow out of the way and Longarm's new promotion as head of Cybertron Intelligence, nothing could stand in the way of the Autobot's downfall. 

At least that's what he thought.

Then he met his secretary.

...............

The average daily routine of a government official was pretty boring, but Shockwave took to it like a decepticon on a covert mission. (which is to say really well)

So it was a little more than a surprise when he learned that the annoying, slim blue bot who had been taking his calls and organizing his schedule for a whole month was just a temporary stand in, and that his actual secretary was, in fact, a scowling red minibot with deeply ingrained anger issues. 

Longarm was just coming from the mess hall with his morning cube when he spotted a strange mech occupying the front desk where Blur usually sat.

"So.." the mech said, eyeing Longarm shrewdly, "...you're the best they could do?"

Longarm's optics shuttered, "I beg your pardon?" 

"Oh nothing," the mini replied, openly glaring, "I couldn't focus with that fresh off the assembly line smell you've got going on. I must've mistaken you for an intern.... 'sir'."

After an uncomfortably long silence in which the two just stared at each other Longarm raised his optic ridges, "I see, however, as of last mega cycle I am your commanding officer and I would appreciate it if... are you even listening to what I'm saying?"

The small mech looked up from where he was doodling a grievously disporportionate picture of Longarm's forelimbs, "Only partially, was there something you needed sir?"

"Other than a modicum of respect, no," Longarm began, "but I-"

"Oh, then I'll just buzz you right in and we won't have to see each other until lunch." The mini interupted, leaning down slightly to press the button under his desk.

What little patience Longarm had managed to garner while undercover was slipping fast, "I actually-"

"The door's open, sir." The mini said, going back to his drawing.

"I- "

"Nice meeting you, sir, goodbye."

"You can't just-"

"Goodbye."

Longarm huffed, turning away from the insolent minibot and storming into his office. As the door swished closed he swore he could hear his new secretary chuckle under his intake, and wished for the first (and definitely not the last) time that the Intelligence Center's doors could be slammed shut.

Sitting down at his desk, Longarm began powering on his data pads and coms links. As the holoscreen flickered to life the double agent tried to get back into the spirit of the whole 'angelic autobot trying to keep the world safe from the evil decepticon menace' thing he had going on. 

He checked his coms for notifications, giving official messages priority over the personal ones. The first he recieved was an inquiry from the Magnus himself concerning the alarming rate of malfunctions space bridges along the outskirts of autobot territories were experiencing. Longarm assured his illustrious leader that he already had his bots working on the issue, expertly omitting that they'd very nearly discovered the decepticon operative currently sabotaging the space bridges, and also put in his own request for an updated record of all known space bridge technicians. 

Within moments Ultra Magnus had pinged back with the information and a private note of thanks to his Intelligence officer for doing such fine work.

Longarm's lip plates lifted slightly upwards at the last part. Despite his true loyalties, the double agent couldn't help but appreciate what a capable magnus Ultra made. He radiated confidence and power like an extra layer of plating. His mannerisms and professional conduct left nothing to be desired. 

..unlike some others... 

Magnus also lead by example. Why, there had only been one occurence in which Sentinel Prime spoke to Longarm coldy and, unfortunately for the proud academy instructor, Ultra had been standing directly behind him at the time. Now even Sentinel treated Longarm with proper respect.

So how dare that little red- !!

Longarm ex-vented loudly, forcing his processor in another direction. Yes, Ultra Magnus, that polite, yet shrewd autobot really was the best of them all. A worthy opponent.

Rifling through his personal messages Longarm quickly deleted all that came from "that moronic metal mass" (Lugnut), and moved the ones with commander Strika's signature behind the most secure of his firewalls before scanning through their contents and decoding the status reports. According to Strika, all was progressing as expected on the front lines. She and her crew were conducting a few seemingly random skirmishes on the border planets to distract the elite guard from the actual threat lurking within Autobot controlled space. And it was, predictably, working.

Simple, blind, autobots. Fools the lot of them. Especially that insolent-

Longarm growled, forgetting himself as frustration sparked up his circuits at the realization that he hadn't even caught the secretary's designation. The data pad held tightly in his servo cracked. 

The minibot had the gall- the utter nerve- !!! And Longarm didn't even know his name!?

Without a second thought, Longarm reached out and pressed the light blue button that connected him with the front desk. 

"It's been, what, two clicks? You break the system already 'sir'?"

Longarm instantly regretted pressing the light blue button. Why hadn't he just looked up the mini's designation? He could have even just asked Blur in the mess hall.

"No," the double agent began slowly, forming a dialog to extract the information he needed, "I wanted to simply... apologize for earlier."

"Yeah, you tend to behave a little uppity, don't you?" There was an obvious smirk behind the mini's words.

Longarm grimaced, the pain he was experiencing entirely mental, "Y-Yes well, we both were brash during our encounter. Regardless, I wish to-"

"Did you actually need me for something, sir, or are you abusing the Intelligence Center's comms link for your emotional drivel? Because, I don't know if the HCI actually has to work these days, but I have tons of scrap to catch up on."

"Lunch." Longarm ground out, trying to scrape all the shattered pieces of his data pad into the trash receptacle. "I was going to invite my secretary- you -to lunch."

"Oh, were you?"

"......yes."

"Well that's nice. See you later, sir."

The comm went blessedly dead and Longarm sat with enough force to make his chair creak in distress. Resting his helm in his half-transformed hands Longarm ex-vented harshly. Things weren't going well with his new secretary. The jagged glass now lying at the bottom of the garbage bin gleamed up at him as a testament to that. 

Delicately, the decepticon pushed the claws peeking out from blunt finger tips back under Longarm's plating. He didn't know how he would keep his composure in the little slag's presence for a minute let alone a whole hour break, but maybe the situation would prove advantageous.

What if the minibot was just having an off cycle? Perhaps the company of others in addition to Longarm's own would ease the red mini's ire by a considerable amount. 

Maybe... hopefully.

The three hours Longarm had before lunch break were spent rather uselessly worrying about those particular hours coming to an end. He found it difficult to concentrate on intelligence reports with an angry, little, red subcompact taking up valuable space in his processor.

Before he was ready three hours were up, and it was time to head for the mess. Briefly, Longarm considered allowing his tank to recycle coolant for one meal to escape his secretary's rude glare, but then thought better of it. How would it come across to his subordinates if Longarm was the one to do the inviting and then not show up?

Preparing himself to be disrespected twice over, Longarm exited his office and was slightly startled to find the front desk occupied by no one. Upon further inspection Longarm found a yellow sticky note addressed to him.

It read: "Left for an early lunch with my buddy Sentinel. Oh, and my designation is definitely not your secretary. It's Cliffjumper. Try not to wear it out, sir."

Longarm crumpled the note, rightly offended.

.........

After a perfectly legal peek into his secretary's service record Longarm knew that getting rid of the red minibot wasn't going to be easy, but he was certain it could be done.

".......No." Ultra Magnus said, looking reprovingly at Longarm through the holoscreen. 

After a second extensive (positively illegal) search into the hidden depths of the mini's personal files Longarm knew that there would be no getting rid of his new secretary.

He would have to resort to befriending... yeuughh... he would do his best to get along with Cliffjumper.

Maybe, with time, things would settle between them and Shockwave's plans could move forward unhindered.

**Author's Note:**

> Heheheheee... hehe.


End file.
